Undeveloped novels and reference books
Numerous undeveloped novels and reference books were written based on various Star Trek series, but for myriad reasons were never produced, as was the case with several other [[undeveloped Star Trek projects|undeveloped Star Trek projects]]. Novels A Time to… :Main article: Star Trek: A Time to... The nine-book series was originally devised as twelve, divided into six duologies. Dafydd ab Hugh's A Time to Create/''A Time to Destroy'' was cancelled (having originally been scheduled after the …Love/''…Hate'' duology), and Keith R.A. DeCandido's A Time for War/''A Time for Peace'' duology compressed into a single volume to close out the storyline. 2827702&postcount 32}} Academy: Trial Run Trial Run was the intended follow-up to William Shatner's Academy: Collision Course. The title was teased at the end of Collision Course, and would have been written by Shatner with his usual collaborators, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Crucible omnibus :Main article: Star Trek: Crucible A hardcover collection of the three books making up the Crucible series was planned for release in . Author David R. George III had written additional material for the omnibus release – five short stories and a preface. However, just short of completion, with the additional material finished, the compilation was cancelled – the official announcement coming on . L.A. Graf "Millennium" duology In discussing the development of their Pocket TOS trilogy, The Janus Gate, L.A. Graf collaborators Julia Ecklar and Karen Rose Cercone recalled that they "had originally been supposed to write a two-book set in honor of the millennium, but the schedules and proposals didn't quite work out for that one", leading to their commissioning for The Janus Gate in its place. ( ) Music of the Spheres :Main article: The novel that was ultimately released as Probe began life as an almost-entirely different story, entitled Music of the Spheres. The author, Margaret Wander Bonanno, details the full story of how the novel was ultimately taken out of her hands and rewritten to conform to the requirements of the Star Trek office at Paramount in a . Bonanno has completely disclaimed the released version of Probe, noting that only 7% of her original manuscript ended up on the book that carried her name. The God Thing :Main article: After unsuccessfully pitching The God Thing to Paramount Pictures as the first Star Trek film, Gene Roddenberry announced he was adapting the screenplay into a novel, to be released by Bantam Books. Despite several iterations, including after Roddenberry's death, the novel remains unpublished. The Last Round-Up As the Pocket TOS numbered novels approached the one hundred mark, it was decided that this method of releases would be phased out, to avoid reader confusion. Editor John Ordover tentatively announced that following #97, In the Name of Honor, a three-book trilogy by Diane Carey, entitled The Last Round-Up would close out the numbering. This ultimately did not materialize, and an unrelated book by Christie Golden was released under a similar title as a hardback. The Millennium Bloom :Main article: The Millennium Bloom The Millennium Bloom was a planned Pocket TOS novel, to be written by Mike W. Barr, and feature Robert April during his tenure as captain of the . Tentatively announced for the schedule in , it was not included in the full schedule a year later, and the project never went beyond the outline stage. The War Virus The War Virus was originally announced as the third book in the The Lost Years trilogy in the acknowledgements for the first book, The Lost Years. The novel was to be written by Irene Kress and released in . It was never released, with later Pocket Books editor John Ordover noting that the novel "didn't work out for reasons I can't really get into". The Yesterday Trilogy After the retroactive creation of The Yesterday Saga in , more books in the series were planned. According to an interview given in 2003, a third book was being written "focusing on Zar, the son of Spock and Zarabeth." The basic plot of this unwritten third book would be that is destroyed and someone has altered the past, forcing Kirk, Spock, and McCoy would have to travel back in time to fix the situation. 3fd4fc4a8365a}} According to another interview with Crispin, this would be the first book of a trilogy with the titles of Return to Yesterday, Yesterday's Vulcan, and Yesterday's Destiny, and that Zar would also travel to ancient Vulcan. 031212203020||The announcement of the three sequel books}} However, a message on TrekBBS in mid-2004 from Marco Palmieri, then-editor of the Pocket Books line, announced that the project would not be continuing forward, and Crispin's death ultimately ended any possibility. The Lost Era – Tzenkethi War A further book in The Lost Era series had been mooted by editor Marco Palmieri for several years. It would have been set aboard the , featuring Benjamin Sisko and then-Captain Leyton, during the Tzenkethi War. With Palmieri's departure from Pocket Books, it was believed that the title was now cancelled. Elements of the novel appear in the Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel Rough Beasts of Empire, with scenes featuring Sisko and Leyton aboard the Okinawa during the war. Walking Wounded A novel by Bradley Thompson, one of the writers of the series, that was to focus on veterans of the Dominion War and be part of the "DS9 relaunch" novels. First proposed in 2001 by Marco Palmieri, it was announced in 2005 it was not going forward, probably due to Thompson being a writer on Battlestar Galactica at the time. Alternate Reality novels Four books were commissioned by Pocket Books, written, and paid for, but were put on hold by early 2010. * Refugees by Alan Dean Foster * Seek a Newer World by Christopher L. Bennett * More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack * The Hazard of Concealing by Greg Cox Reference books ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' tie-in reference books In Gulf+Western requested that its subsidiary Simon & Schuster develop a Star Trek book line as a promotional tie-in for the first ''Star Trek'' film, . A total of sixteen titles, both novels and reference books, were intended to coincide with the 7 December 1979 premiere of the film. (Playboy magazine, January 1980, p. 310) However, due to the film's mixed reception, only about half of these were ultimately released. Reference books that did not come to fruition included, ''U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Date Book'' U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Date Book was the title of a book mentioned for release in Playboy magazine. (January 1980, p. 310) Aside from the mention in the magazine, nothing else is known about the unrealized book, though the title suggested it was aimed at an adolescent readership. ''The Making of the Special Effects of Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' The Making of the Special Effects of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the tentative title given by Susan Sackett, Gene Roddenberry's personal assistant for seventeen years, to the intended spin-off companion book publication of her The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture book, which was published by Pocket Books. The title was canceled due to disappointing sales of other book titles on The Motion Picture. (Enterprise Incidents: special edition on the technical side, p. 50). Sackett was planning to expand on her series of Star Trek Reports she wrote for magazine in the years 1977-1979, during which she closely followed the production of The Motion Picture by incorporating additional information obtained from visual effects staffers while she was writing her original book. (Return to Tomorrow - The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, pp. 416-418) Charles Washburn's reference book Around , assistant director Charles Washburn planned to write a book detailing the production of and some of his other television projects. However, this book never materialized. That same year, he submitted a preliminary feature article to the magazine Starlog (issue 112), detailing his career. Star Trek: The First 25 Years (planned) |pages = 256 |year = 1960s-1990 |ISBN = 0671732331 }} ;From the dust jacket :A stunning visual celebration of one of the most beloved television series of all time, Star Trek: The First Twenty-Five Years is also the inside story of the show that boldly went where no science fiction series had gone before-as only creator Gene Roddenberry could tell it. :The year was 1966 – and all across America, people were gearing up for another season of shows like "Bonanza," "The Beverly Hillbillies," and "Bewitched." The country was facing war in Vietnam, a nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union, and a civil rights struggle at home. The future looked bleak, at best. '' :''Then on September 8th, Star Trek gave viewers across the country a glimpse of what tomorrow could bring. That date we took the first step in a twenty-five year odyssey across imagination's final frontier, a step that brought us four hundred years into the future, and landed us aboard what would soon become the most famous spaceship of all time. Led by Captain James T. Kirk, his eminently logical science officer Mr. Spock, and chief medical officer Dr. Leonard McCoy, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise blazed a trail across the galaxy on a wagon train to the stars – and invited us along on their voyages to seek out strange new worlds, new life and new civilizations. '' :''Here is the story of how creator Roddenberry and his talented team of writers, actors, and behind-the-scenes personnel brought their vision of the future to vivid, unforgettable life. In hundreds of specially selected photographs, you'll relive those voyages, and rediscover the essence of Star Trek: that optimistic vision of the future that captured a legion of fans unprecedented in entertainment history. From the show's initial conception to the record-setting series of motion pictures, from the first television pilot "The Cage" through the smash hit series Star Trek: The Next Generation. '' :''Coauthor Susan Sackett conducted literally hundreds of hours of interviews with the show's creative personnel, including stars of both the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, to provide a glimpse into that future at work. The over two hundred fifty spectacular photographs (over two hundred in full-color) in Star Trek: The First Twenty-Five Years are the result of months of exhaustive research on the part of Richard Arnold, who literally trekked around the world to gather photographic material from private collections, including rare behind-the-scenes photos and publicity shots. '' Slated for release in 1991 on the occasion of ''Star Trek s 25th anniversary, Star Trek: The First 25 Years was intended to be a coffee-table sized hardcover book, priced at US$45.00, and celebrating the franchise. Written by Susan Sackett, the book was to be filled with exhaustive interviews with the creative staff and actors of both and , heavily illustrated throughout with pictures garnered by project assistant Richard Arnold. Originally, Sackett wanted the book released for the 20th anniversary, but protracted negotiations between Pocket Books and Paramount Pictures delayed the release for five years. The book came very close of being actually released, as solicitation dust jackets were already printed and distributed to booksellers and sales representatives alike, as well as a few press review copies. It also received listings, complete with an assigned ISBN number, in the inventories of booksellers (for example, Amazon.com lists the book, even though it was cancelled four years before the company began trading. At the very last moment however, the project was canceled. As to the reasons why the book was canceled at the last moment, Sackett later elaborated that Leonard Nimoy was responsible for the book's cancellation. He was late in signing off on photos of him in the book, and subsequently he wanted editorial changes made to the text of the book. A closed-doors meeting was held with Roddenberry, his lawyer Leonard Maizlish, Nimoy, and his attorney, but excluded Sackett, who was afterwards informed by Maizlish "that the book was on hold because Leonard Nimoy didn't think the prose 'lofty enough,' as Maizlish put it, and wanted it more in the style of someone like Bill Moyers." It should concurrently be noted however, that Nimoy had by then an extremely strained relationship with Roddenberry, and that he was far from being of a mind to further contribute to what former Desilu executive Herb Solow had dubbed, "The Roddenberry Myth". Yet, that did not prevent Pocket Books from using large parts of Sacket's manuscript to be utilized in the later Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before book. "An extensive amount of the copy was taken from my manuscript (which Paramount owned outright, since I was paid as a writer for hire). When I learned of the proposed book, I contacted Pocket Books, and they hastily cut me a small check and added my name on the front page in the first space under 'Additional Material by ", Sackett commented. (Inside Trek: My Secret Life with Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry, pp. 181, 190) Jim Rugg's Special Effects Book Slated for a release after 1993, an as of yet untitled book covering the involvement of special effects artist Jim Rugg with The Original Series was conceived by his son Tom. When announced in February 1993, he related that he hoped to talk his father into doing the book as well as work with him on it together. Yet, as he had stated four years later, "The book was never written. However, I gathered raw material for the book. I taped several hours of interviews with my father, getting details about the effects on each show. I also taped an interview with Al Jones , one of the other effects guys on the show. And I've transcribed most tapes, and my father has edited the transcriptions. Then I got busy with other things, and that's where the book sits. Will the book ever be written? I don't know. I hope so, but I'll need to find some time to do some more interviews (with other participants), or else decide to put together the book using what I have now." Intervened by his father's death in 2004, the book has yet to materialize. Starship Enterprise Starship Enterprise was the tentative title of a book proposed in 1999, slated for a 2000 release, to Pocket Books by would-be authors Mike and Denise Okuda, and would have featured artwork by Doug Drexler. The intent was a reference book that showcased the historical lineage of all starships that had carried the name Enterprise, or as then Chief Editor Margaret Clark put it, "The millennium art book will be ''Starship Enterprise, that's Mike Okuda, and Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler. Every Enterprise-from no letters to E, and all its cousins in between." ( ) Another prospective contributor to the book was Gary Kerr, with whom Okuda had become acquainted three years earlier when the former provided Gregory Jein with detailed construction blueprints for his build of the [[Constitution class model (original)#.22Trials and Tribble-ations.22 model|5.5 foot ''Enterprise studio model]] for the fifth season homage episode episode. Impressed by his work, Okuda invited Kerr to participate by providing the orthographic blueprint views of all the respective Enterprise s. Okuda even arranged for Kerr to make his second visit to the [[Constitution class model (original)#Eleven-foot model|original eleven-foot Enterprise studio model]], to get measurement data he was still missing. Kerr spent three days documenting the model at 's Suitland, Maryland Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility, where the model was stored after its 1992-1993 Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit and prior to the permanent display in the museum's gift shop in 2000. Kerr spent months, working in his own time, on the orthographic blueprints, and he was working on the last of these, those of the , when the book project was canceled. Okuda though, arranged Kerr to be paid for the work he had already done. Also involved on the project was Kerr's friend, Petri Blomqvist, who was brought in as well by Okuda, on recommendation of Kerr. Blomqvist, a Finnish Star Trek fan and digital modeler was to provide some CGI beauty shots of the various ships. He too had already done work on the project, though not yet as extensive as his friend had, when the project was canceled. Despite being canceled, Blomqvist reveled in the experience, "The model ''[remark: of the original ''Enterprise he had been working on for years in close cooperation with his friend]'' was actually nearly finished in late 1999, and an update was supposed to happen, but then a strange thing took place – I was given the task of creating 40 renderings of the original Enterprise for a book called "Starship Enterprise". Being part of that project was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had; unfortunately, the book seems to have been put on hold. I'm still hoping it'll be published some day." Still, out of his own pocket, Okuda bought Blomqvist the software packet for his own personal use. A grateful Blomqvist, who up till then had to make do with antiquated and obsolete CGI software, has been "going gung-ho with it ever since", as his friend has fondly put it. (Sci-fi & fantasy modeller, Vol. 26, pp. 40, 44) Okuda's act of kindness would repay itself six years later, when the remastered version of the ''Original Series came along. The proposition was however nixed by Clark, due to perceived lack of interest because of the price tag the work would entail. Drexler has commented on the subject, "I wrote up some notes for them, and was in discussion about providing some images… but haven’t heard from them in some time." A more modest book, conceived along similar lines, USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual, was published in 2010 by Haynes Publishing on which Mike Okuda served as a technical consultant. Unseen Frontier Unseen Frontier, or Star Trek: The Unseen Frontier Declassified Images from the History of the Federation as the full title of the work read, was the brainchild of Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz and Robert Bonchune, which they came up with while working on the CGI version of the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards sequence for in 1999. "In fact, the whole time we were working on the episode, we thought it was a shame that the people at home would only see this stuff on blurry TV screens, and not in the high-resolution glory we had created them in", Lebowitz said. ( ) Thought at the time to be a potential offshoot of the highly successful ''Star Trek: Ships of the Line'' (2001) calendar, it was actually the other way around, since the book was already announced in that publication, as was explained by Lebowitz in the Star Trek: The Magazine article. The intent was the publication of a coffee table book filled with high-resolution, high-gloss CGI images, based on the existing CG-models actually used for the Star Trek productions. With the assistance of Bonchune, Lebowitz produced a portfolio of images to clarify his intent to then chief editor of Pocket Books, Margaret Clark. Clark, not convinced of the viability of a book in this format, coming hard on the heels of the dismal performances of the likewise conceived books Star Trek: Action! (a project of Clark herself) and New Worlds, New Civilizations, proposed a calendar format instead, as a testbed for a book to be potentially produced later. While awaiting the verdict of Clark, Lebowitz was confident enough to start preliminary work on the project. Lebowitz drew up a list of ships, that either did not previously exist in digital format or, for already existing ones but deemed by him unsuitable for print publication, were slated for replacement with new ones. To this end Lebowitz commissioned the construction of new CGI starship models to outside contractor Ed Giddings and had him start on these, as Lebowitz himself was still working on at Foundation Imaging at the time. Aside from Giddings, Lebowitz had ''Star Trek'' fan Mark Nguyen working on the project as consultant and who provided technical and creative input as well as gathering (photo) reference material for the build of the new models. Giddings had already completed the models of the and the , among others, when the project fell through. Nevertheless, much of Gidding's work was yet to be featured in later officially licensed Star Trek print publications including the Star Trek Fact Files, , the Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars, and their book derivatives, though usually uncredited. Praised by Lebowitz for their high level of detail, his Centaur and Excelsior models were deemed as ready-made for publication in the even later, 2013, Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection partwork series. For that publication, Giddings went on to provide additional digital starship models. However, the second outing in the calendar series, ''Star Trek: Ships of the Line'' (2002), was not nearly a commercial success as the previous one, and convinced Clark not to go ahead with the project. "As a large, coffee table book, it would have carried a price tag approaching $50. During production, their sales staff found it to be a very tough sell to the various book chains' buyers. Invariably, they elected to halt the book rather than risk spending a lot of money they weren't sure they'd recoup. Pure economics.", Lebowitz stated. Consequently, all references to the book were dropped after the 2002 calendar. Clark herself, however, took a slightly different view on the matter as she put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the authors. In a posting of 6 March 2003 on the TrekBBS blog, Clark stated, ""Unseen Frontier" was bought when we were selling a respectable number of non-fiction books. It had a healthy advance and there was some money in the budget for additional plant (book) costs. But, one thing or another and the author/s could not make the first delivery date, then the second. When it looked like the third date (three years later) was possible, I had to run the numbers on the worksheet again. Not good, our sales had dropped to the point were the book would maybe, after two or three years, make back the advance. But then there were additional plant costs that was wanted, to pay for more art, yet to be delivered. The book numbers dropped into the negative numbers. We tried to see if there was anyway to save the book. No go." A far less ambitious book entitled Ships of the Line was published instead in 2006 for Star Trek s 40th anniversary, where (cropped) images from all the calendars (with the exception of the 2002 calendar) were collected, with a brief description of each by Mike Okuda. The first printing of that title, according to Editor Clark, in Co-editor Doug Drexler's Trek Radio Q&A interview session of 22 January 2011, sold out in four days, and somewhat belied Clark's earlier assessment for Unseen Frontier. Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual Slated for publication around 2001, the project was proposed by would-be author Rick Sternbach and would-be illustrator Tim Earls. Sternbach stated optimistically in October 2000, "Tim Earls and I proposed an all-inclusive Voyager technical manual to Pocket Books some time ago, but we and the publisher have not yet come to an agreement on the project. I'm hopeful that eventually a detailed manual will come out of the seven years we've spent developing new technology and starship systems; in the meantime, we'll work up a few articles on these issues for ," the latter eventually becoming the Starfleet Technical Database articles for that publication. Conceived along the lines of its predecessors, Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, the manual was to have as starting point the like-wise titled internal document used for the series, Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual. A year later, however, Sternbach's enthusiasm was substantially dampened as he observed, "Since Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster has the license for Star Trek books, they're the only ones who could publish a potential Voyager TM. I'm not inclined at the time to work with them, due in part to the editorial differences of opinion I had with them over the 1701-D blueprints and DS9 TM. With ENTERPRISE now on the front burner and Pocket Book's publishing directions changed to mostly fiction and a few specialty items like the calendars, I rather doubt the Voyager TM will ever see daylight. I would not be at all interested in taking on a private press effort because of the license infringement issue and the costs involved; likewise I will not be able to lend my name or expertise to any fan-originated TM, web-based or not. (…)Not having my finger on the pulse of the fan viewing community, I couldn't honestly say what the level of interest in Voyager became, or what steered Pocket Books away from the tech books. It may have been a combination of waning interest and the harsh economic realities of doing big flashy publications." In regard to the "harsh economic realities", Sternbach referenced to, Clarke herself has stated in Doug Drexler's Trek Radio Q&A interview session of 22 January 2011, that the previous manual outing, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, never broke even. As to the "editorial differences", Sternbach referred to, he went into some more detail when elaborating in 2009, "As for not doing a Voyager TM, I had a contract in hand from Pocket Books but decided not to go ahead because the advance was simply not adequate to do what could have been the best TM ever. Tim Earls was set to do some kick-ass Illustrator and art, but I thought it would have been better to walk away than to slave over the project for diminishing returns. I was also not entirely pleased with what Margaret Clark had done with the editing on the DS9 TM; I may be in the minority, but I believe her text changes dumbed down the tech nature of the book; e.g., where I had written an entry like "150+ troops" the text was changed to "150 plus troops" which to me altered the meaning. The TNG TM came across much better." ''The Official Star Trek The Next Generation: Build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D'' :See main article: The Official Star Trek The Next Generation: Build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D External links * * Undeveloped Undeveloped Category:Undeveloped projects